I don’t know why I always manage to put my foot in my mouth. I’ve done it so many times over the years, you’d think I would’ve learned by now. I guess I haven’t though because I did it again today. It was a professional development day and the students had the day off. We…

Ari at Our Best Version inspired this post. He mentioned that he plans to home school his children. I started to type of this reply and then thought that it might be a bit long for a reply. Check his post here and my response both here and there (they are different.) To School or…

OCUP is a great resource for elementary school teachers. There are full unit plans for every subject area. Some units are designed especially for split classes too. I have used this site and it’s resources for years. So I was really surprised today when I visited the website and saw a notice that read .…

Today is Blog Action Day. A day where bloggers everywhere unite and tackle the difficult topic of poverty. It’s a difficult topic because there aren’t really any simple solutions. As a teacher, I see poverty every day. It’s heartbreaking. It really is. Some kids come to school with new pencils, a backpack, brand new clothes,…

I had a great holiday weekend. It gave me time to reflect on all the blessings I have in my life. Things might not be perfect. I may be in debt up to my eyeballs. I might not have all the latest technology that some of my friends have. I might want some things that…

I don’t know what happened yesterday, but I was all out of sorts. First, I tried to dismiss my class for recess ten minutes early. I had them pack up their work and I collected all of the papers that they were working on. I then waited for the bell to go. It didn’t. The…

Every student in Ontario has a student record that follows them from school to school and grade to grade. In order for things to be consistent, we have a standard way of marking and a standard report card that all schools use. At least, that is what is supposed to happen. But I have found…

I love going to concerts, and this summer I got to see a lot of great performances. One artist really stuck with me well after her show ended though. Her name was Kreesha Turner and she blew me away with her presence and stage show. I had seen a music video from her a few…

I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew is that we had an assembly today by someone named Q Mack. I heard that he was a basketball trickster. I thought maybe he was like a Harlem Globetrotter (who I’ve had the opportunity to see before by the way and they were really great) When…

Today is a P.A. Day, which is short for Professional Activity Day. The students get the day off so that us teachers can sit in on workshops and in-service meetings. Sometimes these workshops can be quite good, but most of the time I find that they offer me very little. If I can walk away…